This study was initiated to evaluate the level of integration between infrastructure- and spatial planning at local government level in South Africa. Municipalities have been given a constitutional obligation to provide their communities with effective and efficient municipal services. Most if not all of these municipal services require adequate infrastructure to be delivered in a sustainable manner. In addition, infrastructure has been identified as being an enabler of economic growth and development by providing a foundation on which economic and social interaction can occur. The planning of infrastructure is therefore of absolute importance. Additionally, ‗Green Infrastructure‘1 has increasingly been viewed as a means to create sustainable human settlements with numerous benefits.
Unfortunately, it seems that the important task of infrastructure planning has not been receiving the necessary attention at municipal level especially in rural municipalities. This has resulted in both over and under provision of infrastructure in certain areas. As physical infrastructure lays down influential structural elements that can last for centuries, it is proposed that infrastructure be planned in conjunction with strategic spatial planning in a structured manner. This research will determine the feasibility of such integration at municipal level by scrutinising the existing spatial planning system on local government level while considering the infrastructure planning system. The spatial planning system in South Africa has undergone several paradigm shifts over the past number of decades; altering from a master planning approach that was too rigid to adapt to any sudden form of change, to a more conceptual approach drawing on abstract elements such as nodes and corridors.
The South African Presidency has commissioned at least two departments with the task of integrated infrastructure planning on a national level. The first is the National Planning Commission (NPC), and the second is the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME). The former develops long term integrated development plans for all sectors including infrastructure and produced the National Development Plan (NDP) as a long-term vision for South Africa up to 2030, while the latter is dedicated to the advancement of economic infrastructure. Although the focus of this study is on local government level, cognisance must be taken of national and provincial government policy and guidelines.
The practice of spatial planning in South Africa is done on three levels of government as set out in the Constitution (Act 108 of 1996); national, provincial and local. Spatial planning on a local level is additionally subject to various other forms of policy and legislation including the Municipal Systems Act (No 32 of 2000) which instructs local government to undertake integrated development planning for their area of jurisdiction. This function involves the creation of an Integrated Development Plan (IDP), which must link, integrate and co-ordinate plans from all sectors within the municipality. Such IDP must additionally include a Spatial Development Framework (SDF) which must give form to the long term spatial vision of the IDP.
Infrastructure planning on a local level is subject to various institutional arrangements that are aimed to facilitate the large number of role players involved such as service authorities and service providers amongst others. Municipal infrastructure is therefore divided into different categories relating to the scale and function thereof. Firstly, municipal infrastructure is divided into civil and electrical infrastructure where the former consists of roads, water and sanitation infrastructure amongst others and the latter consists of infrastructure concerned with facilitating electricity generation, transmission and distribution. Civil infrastructure can additionally be divided into bulk, connector and internal infrastructure where bulk is larger in scale and normally situated outside formal urbanised areas, leading down to internal infrastructure which is designed to serve individual properties. The division in electrical infrastructure is normally only made between bulk and reticulation, where the latter includes both internal and connector infrastructure.
As in the case with conventional infrastructure, green infrastructure is made up of a large variety of different elements and is practiced on various scales. These scales distinguish between the ownership and responsibility of such green infrastructure. The appropriate level of involvement of local government in green infrastructure practices is fairly uncertain as many municipalities do not make provision for green infrastructure in their development plans. This study makes several proposals on how to incorporate both conventional and green infrastructure into strategic plans. Such proposals include but are not limited to the introduction of an administrative framework aimed at intergovernmental co-operation, the introduction of lower-order spatial plans as well as the introduction of a multi-disciplinary planning team. / MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional Planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/13344 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Kruger, Wessel Johannes |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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